CBS’ Paul Attanasio Drama Pilot Rolled

CBS has pushed the untitled Paul Attanasio Latino cop family drama pilot, executive produced by Leonard Goldberg, for casting reasons.

Written by Homicide creator Attanasio, the drama revolves around the multi-generational members of a Mexican-American family with deep roots in San Diego intertwine personally and professionally due to their powerful careers in law enforcement.

The pilot requires specific casting. The network and producing studio CBS TV Studios made several offers and met with actors for the lead, but for different reasons none panned out. The idea is to revisit the project in the off-season when there is more time to find actors for the leads. The pilot had cast a duo in co-starring roles, David Castaneda and Roberto Aguire.

Goldberg, Barrett and CBS had been trying for two years to develop a drama about a multi-genererational Latino family of cops in Los Angeles — a West Coast take on Blue Bloods, which is about a multi-generational New York family in law enforcement. Last season, a project known as Protect & Serve was written by Elizabeth Davis Beall. It didn’t go to pilot, but CBS and Goldberg kept at it. The concept was put into redevelopment, and last summer Blue Bloods executive producer Siobhan Byrne O’Connor was brought in as a new writer.

That project did not progress beyond early development stages. Meanwhile, Attanasio met with the producers and had a brand-new take on how to crack the generational Latino family cop idea, which led to his San Diego-set script that now is getting a pilot green light.